Thrills and the end of 2010 (Day Four)

[We spent four days at Disney World and I figured I’d document the trip as best I can]

Day Four: Hollywood Studios

By this point, we had a system going. I woke up first, would run down to the cafeteria and wake the kids up with mugs of hot chocolate. We were ready to hit Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have some fun. Jordan kept that birthday pin on – but we also decided our final day would be reason to celebrate her brother for being a great brother. The grownups wore pins that said “I’m Celebrating” and we wrote in “Cameron” at the bottom. Jordan wasn’t too excited about that – but I explained to her that her birthday pin would get her enough birthday wishes that she’ll be okay. The first thing we did once we got to the park was ride the Toy Story Mania ride and pick up an extra Fast Pass for the ride. It’s really popular and known to run out of Fast Passes really early in the day. Just waiting in line for the ride is a toy explosion.
Then we hit a snag. Once again, Jordan was too short to ride the Rockin’ Roller Coaster… and her brother LOVED it. He ended up riding it four times. Jordan was crushed. Luckily we could all ride the Tower of Terror… and even though we pretended to be super scared, Jordan loved it. We ended up riding it a second time at the end of our day.
One of the coolest things we did was eat lunch at the Sci-Fi Movie Drive-in Theater. It’s a huge studio that makes you feel like it’s at night in a drive-in movie theater. You actually eat inside a convertible car while watching sci-fi b-movies. The kids were bummed we didn’t get to watch good movies. I loved it. I’m surprised Jordan didn’t fall asleep since it was dark and she was sitting close to me in our car. This was our view:
We went between action movie activities and things Jordan would like. She was really not interested in watching things blow up. Her brother loved it. We had a chance to see fast cars and the Indiana Jones show. Jordan got to see a Little Mermaid show with her dad while the rest of us rode the roller coaster again. (It’s fast and fun and it’s hard to not laugh while you ride it.)
We ended the day with a HUGE dinner at the 50’s Diner where you eat in a 50’s-style kitchen. We had a lot of fun with our waiter and we ate HUGE milkshakes and all kinds of food Mom would make. We all got New Year’s Eve hats – but Jordan’s head was a little too small for it.
We’ll never forget how our waiter got the entire restaurant to sing for Jordan’s final birthday cupcake. She just loved the birthday attention – even though she took the pin off a few times. Maybe she liked the anonymity from time to time.
The final show we attended was Fantastic. If you ask the kids to explain the show, they have a hard time. But basically it’s a mix of water and fire and fireworks and movie clips and characters all mixed together for a fabulous show. I caught one magical moment when Mickey had control of the fireworks.
We left the park a little before midnight to avoid the rush… Not to mention the kids were exhausted. They both fell asleep in the bus on our way to the hotel. We tried to get Jordan to walk back to the room, but she kept falling asleep on her feet.
She woke up in time to watch the ball drop in New York City and we all got to watch fireworks from our hotel. We had so much fun and we have all kinds of stories to share with friends and family. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to take the kids to the parks every other year. Four days seemed just right… Maybe three. We were so tired. But it was great to be able to play in each park and not worry about bouncing back and forth between parks when its just a busy time of the year. Snagging Fast Passes early in the day and just collecting them as we went was awesome. We realized that the time on a Fast Pass is not the time when you MUST ride the ride. It’s the time when you can get another Fast Pass. So we used our Fast Passes on our own terms and it was great. I look forward to our next trip and who knows what I can dream up for that one!
Happy 2011! Who knows what kind of adventures we have ahead for us this year!